Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ RACER TEST Scott Russell's Muzzy Kawasaki ZXR750R Sup--=- - - e:.rb. .-ik--=-e----'-~~~ " cc ~.J/ c , ,,,,' #"::. 1 :;) By Alan Cathcart ~ Photos by Kyoichi Nakamura s the 1993 World Superbike title contenders headed towards a H igh Noon shootout South of the Border, down Mexico way, there was a feeling in the superbike world - even among some Ducati fans .:that it was Kawasaki's tum to win four-stroke racing's ultimate honor. A little overdue, perhaps - but also just in time, before Honda's return to the superbike arena next season with the fuel-injected RC45, and the rules of the game are changed... It's appropriate that it should be Kawasaki who has produced the ultimate four-cylinder UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) of the carburetted era, which stretches back over the past past three years, would appear to have fulfilled that objective perfectly. It took a shake-up in Kawasaki's World Superbike effort to accomplish this . Aussie veteran Rob Phillis had come close to the crown in the past two seasons - but without cigar. So this year, he was pensioned off Down Under and . replaced by AMA Superbike National Champion Scott Russell for his first full season of racing outside America, in a reshaped team that saw Kawasaki's Australian-based World Superbike operation absorbed by their title-winning AMA Superbike , a packa ge that is clo sel y based on their World Endurance-titlewi n ni ng ZXR-7 Fl , with an intake sno r ke l for the pressurized airbox enclosing the 39mm Keihin flatsl'des cut into the front left spar of the frame. This is stiffer than the '92 version, thanks to increased wall thickness of the aluminium used for the main spars, as we ll as having a stiffer sw ingarm, w ith a cast cates the specs we ran the works bikes in last season . The trick is know ing how to put it all together, and set it up right: ' Judging by our test session on Scott Russell 's racer at the fast , sweepy Zeltweg track in Austria, the Muzzy team certainly know how to do that. This bike is intimidatingly fast to ride; a breathtakingly powerful motorcycle that seems much more closely related to the quarter-century, ever since Honda - once again - introduced the new order with the debut of the CB750 . For it was Kawasaki who shocked the world by pulling out of 500cc GP racing exactly a decade ago after some promising results with their avant-garde KR500 in the hands of Kork Ballington and Gregg Hansford. The official reason, it says on the lO-year-old press release, was "to concentrate our company's efforts on competing in the future with motorcycles that are closely based on the models we sell to our customers for the street" The ZXR750, with two World Endurance titles and now the World Superbike crown under its wheels in the team, under the overall control of Greenbike guru Rob Muzzy. Aussie team boss Peter Doyle would serve as manager of the combined setup, and Kiw i Aaron Slight was the team's second rider. With the equation completed by further development on the ZXR in Japan, and by the team to prod uce a bike which now clearly has the measure of the allconquering Ducati twins at world level, the refocused Kawasaki effort has achieved everything that could be expected of it. All concerned have delivered consistent results, where Ducati's lead riders have failed to do so. To win the title, Kawasaki came up with a new chassis for the ZXR750 section around the pivot area, which is n ow ad justable for loca tion like o n Phil lis' s ' 92 works b ike. Basically, Kawasaki took a leaf out of the Ducati book and built an outright four -stroke GP bike that could be homologated for the street - imp roved according to their prev ious year's racing experience thereby benefiting the guys who ultimately bankroll all this, their street-riding customers. The same applies to the engine, only in spades: "There isn't a single part in Scott Russell's motor that you can't buy from a Kawasaki dealer," Muzzy said. "Our motors are fitted with the '93 ZXR customer race kit, which basically repli- Scott Russell's World Championship Superbike Series-winning Kawasaki A 20 oney ZXR750R. GP world than its more street-derived, Rob Phillis -ridden predecessor that we tested at the same track a year ago. Part of this may be due to the difference in rider choice for the way it's set up, but the rest comes from empirical development of an existing design that, in fact, results in a race bike that seems radically different in terms of both engine and chassis behavior from its immediate forerunner. Though very different from its Ducati rival in obvious

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